.\" dpkg manual page - deb-changelog(5)
.\"
.\" Copyright © 1996-1998 Ian Jackson and Christian Schwarz
.\" Copyright © 1998, 2001 Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2001 Julian Gilbey <jdg@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2003 Josip Rodin <joy@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2008, 2010 Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2010 Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2014 Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>
.\" Copyright © 2015-2017 Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>
.\"
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.
.TH deb-changelog 5 "%RELEASE_DATE%" "%VERSION%" "dpkg suite"
.nh
.SH NAME
deb\-changelog \- dpkg source packages' changelog file format
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
changelog
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
Changes in the packaged version of a project are explained in the
changelog file \fIdebian/changelog\fP.
This includes modifications made in the source package compared to the
upstream one as well as other changes and updates to the package.
.PP
The format of the \fIdebian/changelog\fP allows the package building
tools to discover which version of the package is being built and find
out other release-specific information.
.PP
That format is a series of entries like this:

.nf
\fIpackage\fP (\fIversion\fP) \fIdistributions\fP; \fImetadata\fP
          [optional blank line(s), stripped]
  * \fIchange-details\fP
    \fImore-change-details\fP
          [blank line(s), included in output of \fBdpkg\-parsechangelog\fP(1)]
  * \fIeven-more-change-details\fP
          [optional blank line(s), stripped]
 \-\- \fImaintainer-name\fP <\fIemail-address\fP>  \fIdate\fP
.fi

.PP
\fIpackage\fP and \fIversion\fP are the source package name and version
number.
.PP
\fIdistributions\fP lists one or more space-separated distributions where
this version should be installed when it is uploaded; it is copied to the
\fBDistribution\fP field in the \fI.changes\fP file.
.PP
\fImetadata\fP is a comma-separated list of \fIkeyword\fP=\fIvalue\fP items.
The only \fIkeyword\fPs currently supported by \fBdpkg\fP are \fBurgency\fP
and \fBbinary\-only\fP.
\fBurgency\fP's value is used for the \fBUrgency\fP field in the
\fI.changes\fP file for the upload.
\fBbinary\-only\fP with a \fByes\fP value, is used to denote that this
changelog entry is for a binary-only non-maintainer upload (an automatic
binary rebuild with the only change being the changelog entry).
.PP
The change details may in fact be any series of lines starting with
at least two spaces, but conventionally each change starts with an
asterisk and a separating space and continuation lines are indented
so as to bring them in line with the start of the text above.
Blank lines may be used here to separate groups of changes, if desired.
.PP
If this upload resolves bugs recorded in the distribution bug tracking
system, they may be automatically closed on the inclusion of this
package into the distribution archive by including the string:
.nf
  \fBCloses: Bug#\fP\fInnnnn\fP
.fi
in the change details (the exact Perl regular expression is
\fB/closes:\\s*(?:bug)?\\#?\\s?\\d+(?:,\\s*(?:bug)?\\#?\\s?\\d+)*/i\fP).
This information is conveyed via the \fBCloses\fP field in the \fI.changes\fP
file.
.PP
The maintainer name and email address used in the changelog should be the
details of the person who prepared this release of the package.
They are \fBnot\fP necessarily those of the uploader or usual package
maintainer.
The information here will be copied to the \fBChanged\-By\fP field in the
\fI.changes\fP file, and then later might be used to send an acknowledgement
when the upload has been installed in the distribution archive.
.PP
The \fIdate\fP has the following format (compatible and with the same
semantics of RFC2822 and RFC5322, or what «date \-R» generates):
.IP
\fIday-of-week\fP\fB,\fP \fIdd\fP \fImonth\fP \fIyyyy\fP \fIhh\fP\fB:\fP\fImm\fP\fB:\fP\fIss\fP \fB+\fP\fIzzzz\fP
.PP
where:
.TP
.I day-of-week
Is one of:
.BR Mon ", " Tue ", " Wed ", " Thu ", " Fri ", " Sat ", " Sun .
.TP
.I dd
Is a one- or two-digit day of the month (\fB01\fP-\fB31\fP).
.TP
.I month
Is one of:
.BR Jan ", " Feb ", " Mar ", " Apr ", " May ", " Jun ", " Jul ", " Aug ", "
.BR Sep ", " Oct ", " Nov ", " Dec .
.TP
.I yyyy
Is the four-digit year (e.g. 2010).
.TP
.I hh
Is the two-digit hour (\fB00\fP-\fB23\fP).
.TP
.I mm
Is the two-digit minutes (\fB00\fP-\fB59\fP).
.TP
.I ss
Is the two-digit seconds (\fB00\fP-\fB60\fP).
.TP
.RI [\fB+-\fP] zzzz
Is the time zone offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
‘\fB+\fP’ indicates that the time is ahead of (i.e., east of) UTC and
‘\fB\-\fP’ indicates that the time is behind (i.e., west of) UTC.
The first two digits indicate the hour difference from UTC and the last
two digits indicate the number of additional minutes difference from UTC.
The last two digits must be in the range \fB00\fP-\fB59\fP.
.PP
The first “title” line with the package name must start at the left
hand margin.
The “trailer” line with the maintainer and date details must be
preceded by exactly one space.
The maintainer details and the date must be separated by exactly two
spaces.
.PP
Any line that consists entirely (i.e., no leading whitespace) of \fB#\fP
or \fB/* */\fP style comments or RCS keywords.
.PP
Vim modelines or Emacs local variables, and ancient changelog entries with
other formats at the end of the file should be accepted and preserved on
output, but their contents might be otherwise ignored and parsing stopped
at that point.
.PP
The entire changelog must be encoded in UTF-8.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I debian/changelog
.SH EXAMPLES
.nf
dpkg (1.17.18) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Guillem Jover ]
  * Handle empty minimum versions when initializing dependency versions,
    as the code is mapping the minimum version 0 to '' to avoid outputting
    useless versions. Regression introduced in dpkg 1.17.17. Closes: #764929

  [ Updated programs translations ]
  * Catalan (Guillem Jover).

  [ Updated dselect translations ]
  * Catalan (Guillem Jover).
  * German (Sven Joachim).

 \-\- Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>  Sun, 12 Oct 2014 15:47:44 +0200
.fi
.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR deb\-version (7),
.BR deb\-changes (5),
.BR dpkg\-parsechangelog (1).
